Life sentence for man who raped woman in her home

A man who raped a Sikh woman in her home while subjecting her to a tirade of religiously aggravated abuse was jailed for at least 14 years. John Ashby, 32, beat the woman - in her 20s - with a stick, while also shouting anti-Muslim abuse, wrongly believing her to be of that faith. At Birmingham Crown Court, the judge, Mr Justice Pepperall, described Ashby as a "deeply unpleasant racist and Islamophobe". Ashby had been on trial for rape, robbery, intentional strangulation and religiously aggravated assault, but changed his pleas shortly before the victim was due to give evidence. He followed the victim - a stranger - as she got off a bus in Walsall in October 2025. After the woman reached her home, Ashby, without her knowledge, also entered the property, armed with a two-foot stick he had picked up from the ground. Imposing a life sentence with a minimum term of 14 years, the judge said Ashby, of no fixed address, had held the woman against her will "as you sexually and physically assaulted her for at least 24 minutes". The judge referred in his sentencing remarks to how Ashby, as the court heard on Monday, was arrested in the Perry Barr area of Birmingham two days after the attack, and when booked into a police station there, stated "you never see any Englishmen in Perry Barr anymore". He also said to Ashby: "On being shown a photograph of the woman during your police interview, you asked why she wasn't wearing a hijab." This video has been edited to remove extreme language and graphic descriptions of sexual offences. The judge's sentencing remarks can be read in full at: https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/r-... SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel for more videos:    / @skynewscourts   Follow Sky News on Twitter:   / skynews   and   / skynewsbreak   Like us on Facebook:   / skynews   Follow us on Instagram:   / skynews   For more content go to http://news.sky.com and download our apps: Apple https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/sky-n... Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/de...